My Top Ten Renovation Product Recommendations under €30...

...Except for the super fancy duvet, but it's too good to not rave about.

1 - Spray Paint Stain Blocker

Got decades old water & mould stains that leak through, no matter how many coats of paint you chuck at the problem?

One spray of this and my walls are gleaming white. Bonus points because it made me feel like I was 13 again, when I had dreams of being a cool graffiti artist.

2 - Rechargeable, Motion Sensor LED Lights

Bought a house with no electricity?

Need to wait until January for your qualified mate to come and sort out the wiring?

Stick some of these bad boys up, and you too can feel super smug as you glide down the uninhabitable corridors without tripping over things, and don’t have to curse at yourself for trekking down to the cantina but forgetting your torch.

3 - Lidl's Middle-Aisle Mini Sander

An absolute bargain, and way better than slaving away with a sheet of sandpaper on the intricate bits of all the furniture I’m restoring. Although it’s not the workout I got with doing everything by hand, it no longer takes a week to finish a table.

4 - Beeswax Wood Polish

Because it smells amazing and makes me feel like a professional up-cycler. Bonus points, it works to soften all the calluses, scabs and dry skin on my little used-to-live-in-a-city-so-I’m-soft, turned master-renovator’s, hands.

5 & 6 - Marbec Cotta Tile Cleaner & Finishing Stuff

The cleaner smells all almondy and lovely, which means it’s definitely toxic - is it arsenic or cyanide that’s got something to do with almonds? - and I’ve had to use two dozen fresh buckets of water to remove the dirt it’s lifted (and I’m still not convinced any sane person would actually say the floor is now ‘clean’) but it’s a mighty improvement.

As for the finishing product, I’ve no idea what it’s actually called. Varnish? Wax? Sealant? But does a name matter when it’s saved the best floor in the building from decades of decay.

7 - A Cat

Because humane mousetraps are great, but they don’t get to the root of the problem. And have you even embraced the ‘buying a big, old Italian farmhouse’ lifestyle, if you don’t have several semi-feral animals running about the place?

Technically, we didn’t buy him (we exchanged him for a bottle of Amarone with the neighbour), but I haven’t seen any mice since he arrived, so I’d say he’s working as intended.

Sidenote - He would’ve got five stars, but loses one point for being very distracting in his cuteness.

8 - Lots of plants

They make a very rudimentary, grubby house look polished and perfect at first glance. Just don’t look any closer. Extra points to Lidl here, who always have a new selection to choose from, with prices between €3-€10.

9 - An expensive duvet

Yes, at one time I was vegan.

Yes, I feel very bad about buying a proper feather & down duvet.

No, the guilt doesn’t stop me sleeping at night.

Besides, the indoor thermometer says my bedroom is a horrifying 12 degrees (and it’s only November, folks), so I reckon it’s justifiable when you live somewhere genuinely cold and have no central heating.

We bought the kind that’s actually two duvets press-studded together, which is kind of annoying when you’re making the bed, but works brilliantly for a place where the temps in winter go deep into the minuses and then in summer, it’s baking.

It’s so good, we’ve even shelled out on these posh duvets for the guest rooms. We may not be able to afford a heating system, but we can spare a couple of hundred making sure everyone can get a decent, warm, night’s sleep.

10- Fabric Dye & Sofa Covers

Not only do we not have a budget for nice sofas and furniture (wish me luck on closing that latest book deal!), but we thought it’d be a waste to buy anything fancy yet. I’m clumsy as hell, and will only spill paint on them.

Or, what with Wilson still technically a puppy, if we bought expensive chairs, he’d chew a hole in them immediately.

So we nabbed a €50 sofa on Marketplace, dyed the garish red fabric - it was supposed to turn dark blue, but I’m actually OK with the burgundy that we ended up with - and covered the yellow sofa (left by the old owners) with a lovely velvet (probably not real given the €20 price tag) green cover, and voila!

Now it’s over to you-

Gimme your recommendations, your top tips, your advice (because, lord, don’t I need it?!?).

I love hearing from everyone else on this journey and learning from people who have slightly more knowledge and skill than me!

Drop a comment, follow us on Insta, and share far & wide.

Sharing the silliness of this renovation with you all makes me feel a smidgen less imposter syndrome, so thank you all for being here and following the journey with us.

Ciao!

Angie